Category: Boston Gang Wars

The killing of Bobby Palladino let John breathe a little easier. But the district attorney was still investigating the Margaret Sylvester murder. The DA had empaneled an investigative grand jury. Martorano knew witnesses to the murder might be pressured into telling what happened by the grand jury. One obvious witness would have been the bartender,…

John Martorano said he first met former convict Bobby Palladino in 1962 at Jules’ Pool Room which had an ongoing, never-ending crap game. Palladino was one of the few white men who went to Jules’. Palladino had been in trouble since he was 17 when he was arrested for an armed robbery. His last time…

Margaret Sylvester was a 35-year-old waitress, mother of a 14-year-old son, an attractive blonde, five foot eight inches weighing 140 pounds. She had been a waitress for a long time at Luigi’s.  She was found wrapped up in a rug on November 10, 1964, having been stabbed in the abdomen three times.  Boston police discovered…

John Martorano was born December 13, 1940. His brother James was born a year later on December 10, 1941. John was a tough guy… until he started looking at having to do prison time. Back in the late Seventies, Martorano had been caught by the Plymouth District Attorney’s office in a wiretap of a bookie…

The body of Andrew Von Etter age 27 was found on February 7, 1967, severely bludgeoned, garroted with the rope left around his neck and shot at least twice. The garroting would tend so make one think about a Mafia type killing. However, other facts point toward the Wimpy Bennett gang. Von Etter had a…

If you can tell who a person is by the company he keeps and the actions he takes, then you already know Wady David.  He was a South End character arrested at age 39 for possession of a knife and illegal drugs. The arrest in of itself is not particularly interesting until you learn the…